In case folks are interested in what I’m up to between articles here, I thought I would give you a taste (pun intended; keep reading!).
When good old democratic totalitarianism poked its ugly head into my life in 2020, I thought for all money it wouldn’t be long until my worldly goods were confiscated and I would be relegated to the crowd filling up cattle cars. It was an eerie experience, never quite knowing how far the government would go this time. Historical retrospection left a Nazi-flavoured sour taste in my mouth. What to do?
I have never been the ‘prepper’ type but I thought it is never too late to stock up some things just in case. Food. Food. More food. Gas. Food. Of all the myriad of things I bought back then, three I still use daily. They are books.
The first is Tim Low's 1988 classic, Wild Food Plants of Australia (Sydney: Angus & Roberston). This little field guide for common Aussie bush tucker has brought surprising joy to my life. My knowledge of Australian wild food, scant beforehand, has increased markedly since this acquisition. And it has been a pleasure to chronicle my own bush food journey on Mark Valencia’s Self Sufficient Me forum. It is never too late to learn the art of wild foraging… you know, just in case. One of my unstated goals is that, one day, every image in that bush food chronicle will be my own!
The second is of a similar vein: Adam Grubb & Annie Raser-Rowland’s Weed Foragers Handbook: A Guide to Edible and Medicinal Weeds in Australia (Melbourne: Hyland House, 2012). Now many folks will balk at the idea of eating weeds, perhaps. Isn’t that what the WEF folks want? Bugs and dandelions for our dinner while they feast on wagyu and champagne? But these neglected plants grow abundantly around us and have many useful medicinal properties, well known by herbalists of bygone eras. I think that is very important to revive in an age when the medical mafia has earned its cruel and wicked reputation of death and misery. I am chronicling my progress with these as well, but my pace is much slower than my bush tucker ones. There are other excellent books on this topic which may be more suited to my North American readers: James Duke’s Handbook of Edible Weeds (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2001) and Nicole Apelian’s The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods: Edible Plants, Lichens, Mushrooms and Seaweeds (Global Brother SRL, 2021) are both superb tomes on the topic of foraging and herbal medicine.
The last was a nifty 10-in-1: Richard Graves’ The 10 Bushcraft Books (Createspace Independent Publishing, repr. 2015). Written by a military jungle survival expert, they detail the arts of rope- and cord-making, shelter construction, camping, food and water acquisition, knots & lashings, tracks, lures, snares, traps, and overland navigation techniques. In other words, the essentials for intellectual terrorists fleeing the iron-toothed ideological maw of a corrupt and wicked government intent on pushing insane democidal policies. I have not done too much with these, yet, but my eye is firmly fixed on making rope from gymea lilies and lomandra leaves. Primitive Technology (YouTube), another Aussie survivalist, is also an occasional inspiration in this same vein. At least he has yams where he lives; I haven’t found those yet!
If I wasn’t working 50-60 hours per week on top, I would write all the more! How about you? What keeps you busy in the quiet between articles?